Stanislavski_System

The Stanislavski system was created by Constantine Stanislavski in the early 20th century. Stanislavski created this method because he was tired of the unrealistic style of acting that is ‘Melodrama’. An additional thing that Stanislavski found to really annoy him seing theatre were actors who performed for themselves not as an ensemble. A famous quote from one Constantine Stanislavski was “there are no small parts, only small actors”. To have a performance that accurately displays the methods of the Stanislavski system and to “create theatre of living experience” you need to ask the fundamental questions. The fundamental questions that I used while preparing this scene where. Who Am I' What time is it' Where Am I' What are the given circumstances' What is my objective in this scene' And what is my super objective' Here are some examples of my fundamental questions and answers. Who Am I' I am Rosalind daughter of Duke Senior. In this play I dress up as a man and go by the name of Ganymede. I do all of this so I can teach Orlando how to be a proper husband for me. What time is it' The time period in which this play was set was the 16th century. When this scene ends it is 12 noon. I know this exactly because it is stated in the last minute of the scene. What is my objective in this scene' I believe my objective in this scene is to is to have a little fun with Orlando, play with his mind a little.eg. "Am I not your Rosalind" like really I look like a man he has believed be to be Ganymede can I really be his Rosalind. Where Am I' I am in the forest of Aredenne a fictional forest that Shakespeare created it is meant to be a forest in France. Stanislavski also wrote about using emotional and muscular memory to put you into the role and play it believably. An example of emotional memory is if you were playing a character for example Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream who was dissatisfied with her looks and wanted to be like Hermia, you may remember a time where that you once wished to look like someone else. The ways I have used muscular and emotional memory in our scene from Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ has been; Emotional- When I have thought that a boy I have met has been not quite what I like and a little bit of a jerk and I’ve wished there could be a way that I could influence him to change his attitude to a better attitude unlike his friends who I see are doing the opposite. Muscular- I have used muscular memory to show the frustration that I believe Rosalind must have trying to get her point across to Orlando. The memory I have used has been when I many times in my life have tried to tell my brothers something and they are completely zoned out and have not heard me this makes me extremely frustrated. I also used observation just like I think Rosalind would have when she was creating her façade as Ganymede. What I have observed both in public and in my own family has been when guys are nervous about something or extremely embarrassed they clear their throats and (just like girls probably do) rock from side to side a little, transferring weight from foot to foot. Stanislavski also taught of dividing the text into units and bars. In my scene I didn’t use this method but have looked at my script to see when there are mood changes and changes in what she wants as a character, seeing my character does have many throughout our scene. It would have actually been a really good idea to use this particular Stanislavski technique. Using Units of Action within a play was something that Stanislavski intensely believed could make the acting more realistic. An important thing to remember when using objectives is that the objective has to be active (pushing the story onwards) each unit has its own objective and that objective ends when the unit ends and vice versa. Once a scene has been divided into units of action it may be broken down into smaller sections called beats. Beats are the thoughts or movements made by a character that are distinctly different to the other characters on stage. All in All Stanislavski’s techniques and theories have really interested me along with helping me while I have been working on this duologue for our performance task. These techniques have really helped me make a scene that would usually be potrayed using techniques of Melodrama rather than the contrary Stanislavski approach, very realistic. I just hope that Stanislavski would’ve thought so and believed us.